Dutch Oven Butter Swim Biscuits
A wet dough poured over melted butter and baked in a dutch oven. No cutting in, no rolling, no cold hands.
- calories
- 250
- weight
- 2 oz
- cal / oz
- 125
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 9, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 420 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 4 tsp | check the date, old powder gives you a brick |
| Granulated sugar | 4 tsp | |
| Kosher salt | 2 tsp | |
| Buttermilk powder | 1/2 cup | replaces 2 cups fresh buttermilk |
| Cold water | 2 cups | about 420 ml, added to the powder |
| Butter | 1 stick (4 oz) | ghee works and keeps longer in heat |
Method
- Build a bed of coals or start briquettes. You want roughly 8 under a 10-inch dutch oven and 16 on the lid.
- Set the butter in the oven and put the lid on until it melts, two to five minutes. Pull it off the heat.
- In a bag or bowl, stir the premixed dry ingredients with 2 cups of cold water until you have a wet, sticky dough. Do not keep working it once the flour is hydrated.
- Scrape the dough onto the melted butter and push it out to the edges with a spoon. Butter should come up around the sides.
- Score the dough into nine squares with a knife so the butter runs into the cuts.
- Lid on, coals on top, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Rotate the oven and the lid a quarter turn every eight minutes so nothing scorches.
- Done when the top is browned and a stick comes out of the center dry.
Butter swim biscuits work because the fat never has to be cut into the flour. It sits in the pan and the dough falls into it, so you get a fried bottom edge and a soft middle without cold butter, a pastry cutter, or a countertop. That makes it one of the few real biscuit methods that survives a picnic table.
The only change from the home version is the buttermilk. Powdered buttermilk and water rehydrate close enough that the baking powder still gets its acid, and nothing has to stay cold. Coal placement matters more than time here: most of the heat belongs on the lid, or the bottoms burn before the tops set.
Packing
Flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and buttermilk powder go into one bag at home, shaken to combine. Butter rides in the cooler or, if it's cool out, wrapped in the pot.
Variations
- Stir a handful of shelf-stable shredded parmesan and a spoon of dried herbs into the dry mix.
- Skip the sugar and serve them under gravy from a packet.
- Half the batch fits a 8-inch oven; use six coals under and twelve on top.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/butter-swim-biscuits